DIGITAL DIVIDE
High-Tech Center to Open in Ghana (NYT)
Malaysia's Internet Road Show (NYT)
EDTECH
Take-Home Test: Adding PC's to Book Bags(NYT)
CONVERGENCE
Sony's New AirBoard Device Combines TV Set, Internet (WSJ)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
HIGH-TECH CENTER TO OPEN IN GHANA
Issue: Digital Divide
BusyInternet is setting up a state-of-the-art technology center in a place
where consistent telephone service, electricity and even running water can
be hard to find. With the help of Ghanaian business partners, BusyInternet
is preparing to open a high-tech development center in Accra, Ghana, that
offers training rooms, office space, meeting rooms, workstations for
low-cost public Internet access, a photocopying shop and a cafe. The center
will be housed in a 14,000-square-foot former factory building. Equipped
with Pentium III computers, flat-screen monitors and Internet access via
satellite, the BusyInternet building is expected to open next month. The
company plans to open similar centers in other African countries like
Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Uganda next. "There are 240,000 telephone lines in
Ghana for 19 million people," said Mark Davies, the founder and chief
executive of BusyInternet. "It takes about seven dials to make some phone
calls go through, just across town." He said that BusyInternet would be
independent of the local utilities. "We've put in our own link to the
national electric grid, our own generator, our own satellite dish for
bandwidth," he explained. Those plans place BusyInternet in the middle of a
debate on the role of technology investment in developing countries. Bill
Gates argued that such countries need basic amenities like food and medicine
more than they need personal computers. Others, like Freeman Dyson, in his
1999 book "The Sun, the Genome and the Internet," point out that the
technology can be used to educate people in developing countries and help
close the economic gap between them and industrialized countries.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: J. D. Biersdorfer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/23/technology/circuits/23AFRI.html)
MALAYSIA'S INTERNET ROAD SHOW
Issue: Digital Divide
A bus called the Mobile Internet Unit, is an attempt by Malaysia to help
bridge its digital divide by delivering technology to its poorest, most
remote schools. The United Nations Development Program, conceived the
program, which uses a 40-foot bus loaded with 20 personal computers to teach
basic computer and Internet skills to rural children and teachers. The bus,
however, can only establish Internet access by stringing a telephone cord to
a telephone jack nearby. If one is not available, pupils on the bus surf Web
sites stored on the bus's computer server. At the end of each visit, the
Mobile Internet Unit's organizers leave behind a PC, a modem and an Internet
account so that pupils can practice and teachers can find ways to work
computers into the curriculum.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Wayne Arnold]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/23/technology/circuits/23MALA.html)
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EDTECH
TAKE-HOME TEST: ADDING PC'S TO BOOK BAGS
Issue: EdTech
Amid the decisions of some school districts to provide all of their grade
school students with laptops, some educators worry whether it is the right
choice. The debate is still open about whether laptop programs are really
the panacea that some claim. Budget cuts, maintenance, technical support and
training merge with concerns about child safety: Will the computers be
magnets for muggers? Who is going to make sure that students use them for
schoolwork as opposed to instant messaging and video games? "Before they
spend money on something like that, they ought to fix the leaky roofs," said
Kenneth Reinshuttle, executive director of the Fairfax Education
Association, a teacher's union in Virginia. But given wireless networks,
$1000 laptops, and organizations that either provide or assist in the
hardware, software and wireless networking, the movement is becoming harder
and harder to resist. Henrico County, Va., purchased 23,000 Apple iBooks
which are being distributed this month to every high school student; in
Maine, Gov. Angus King is using a $30 million state budget surplus to supply
portable computers for every seventh and eighth grader in the state; and New
York is expanding its laptop program.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Lisa Guernsey]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/23/technology/circuits/23LAPP.html)
CONVERGENCE
SONY'S NEW AIRBOARD DEVICE COMBINES TV SET, INTERNET
Issue: Convergence
The new Sony AirBoard, which is reported to look like a big Etch-A-Sketch,
is a combination wireless television and Web appliance. For now, the
AirBoard is only available in Japan, but Sony plans to begin selling the
device in the U.S .for about $1,200 by the end of the year. The wireless
technology used by Sony, called Wi-Fi , is considered an important step in
enabling dialogue between a variety of entertainment appliances: PC, stereo
and TV set. The technology, of course, is not without its problems.
Interference and security are the main concerns.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jared Sandberg]
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB998517130401391459.htm
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